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GLENNVILLE, GA - With the Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Exposure event just days away, Bland Farms is upping the anticipation with some star power. On top of highlighting its high-quality portfolio of Vidalia® Sweet Onions and Premium Mexican Sweet Onions, the supplier is excited to launch its Southern Stars promotion alongside country music star Billy Currington.

“Like the rest of us, Billy loves his Bland Farms Vidalia Sweet Onions. In fact, his first concert was at the Vidalia Onion Festival. So, as you can imagine, we are all anticipating a great Vidalia Season,” says Troy Bland, Chief Executive Officer. “We expect the millions of country music fans will be excited for a chance to win Billy Currington concert tickets and enjoy his Vidalia sweet onion recipes featured on Bland Farms Vidalia Sweet Onion bags and online.”

In addition to getting the lowdown on this star-studded promotion, visitors to Bland Farms’ booth will get a first-hand look at its fantastic Vidalia Brands items, which are great for retail displays during the spring and summer.

“The upcoming Vidalia season is the perfect time to cross-promote our Vidalia Brands snacks and condiments with our Bland Farms Vidalia Sweet Onions,” Troy explains. “We’re always trying to keep things fresh and on-trend, and SEPC is a great platform to showcase what’s on the horizon. Last year, we launched great new labels for our Vidalia Brands products, making them even more appealing to retail customers.”

So, what exactly is Bland Farms working on for the future? As Troy tells me, the company will be focusing on boosting its sustainability efforts with packaging options to reduce waste. Bland Farms will also be increasing its operational capabilities to benefit its customers.

“We continue to make minor adjustments to our new state-of-the-art Controlled Atmosphere packaging facility to improve quality while reducing shrink,” adds Troy. “And we are reducing fuel costs by providing our customers one stop for their sweet onions AND sweet potatoes through our Sand Candy Sweet Potato partnership.”

If you want to learn how to get in on the action at Bland Farms, make a pit stop at booth #1033.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Looking for a romantic wine weekend getaway? You can find a full-service farm winery just an hour away from Savannah in Glennville.

A couple said that they own one of the oldest farms in Georgia. They shared the story of how they got started with WTOC and said that it’s not just about the wine, but the land’s history.

Charles and Deborah Tillman, the owners of Watermelon Creek Vineyard said that making wine takes a year-long process.

Deborah Tillman said that during the winter months, they cut the vines.

“From April they start growing and they go wild in the summer and make grapes. Then come fall after harvest the leaves start turning yellow. So the winter time they are sleeping when we cut so the new growth can produce more growth next year,” said Deborah.

The two opened their doors to the community in 2012, but the history of the 300- acre site goes back to 1812.

“In 2003 I got a call from my cousin in Little Rock Arkansas who inherited this piece of land. He says I am going to sell our grandmother’s homeplace do you want to buy it so I said yeah. So two or three weeks later Deborah and I came over and looked to see what we bought and then began the romance I say with history,” said Charles.

Charles, the 8th generation to live on the land said that at the time, they didn’t know what to do with it, but eventually fell in love after learning more about who lived there before them.

He mentioned that a small child named Hopkins Padgett and his mother and grandmother had a residence on the southbank of Watermelon Creek.”

The property also included a sawmill, grist mill, general store, and post office back in the day.

And today --the couple continues the legacy with their destination venue.

“In about 2007 we got this place cleaned up enough to plant the vineyard, it all started because of a trip to Sonoma Valley.”

Charles says that the vacation inspired them.

“The guys was about 30 years old and growing grapes and I told Deborah I think we can do this. I think this will work, said Charles.”

That is when his life partner turned into a business partner.

The two who will be celebrating 40 years of marriage in March say they are living the American dream.

Charles said he couldn’t have done it without his other half.

“This person told me this, you sound like me and my wife he tells me. I said what do you mean. He said, well we’ve been married for 50 years and now I got half a brain and she’s got half a brain and apart we can do nothing but together we can get by and that’s pretty much what happened.”

Tilman says the vineyard not only brought him and his wife closer but also gives them the opportunity to meet people from all over...

Sot " you know literally in the next hour a car can pull in her from Montreal, or Jamaica or brazil.”

The couple hopes everyone can get a chance to experience what they call their ‘enchanted’ place they call home.

The winery is located at 2977 Mount Zion Church Rd, Glennville, GA 30427. Wine tasting and behind-the-scenes tours of the property are held Wednesday through Saturday. To learn more about what they offer click here.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.

(RNS) — Bishop Scott Jones isn’t the first United Methodist bishop to join the Global Methodist Church since the theologically conservative denomination launched in May, but his exit from the UMC has arguably caused the greatest stir.

That’s partly because of the unique position his family holds in Methodism and the “extreme center” position he had staked out within the United Methodist Church.

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For some, it also casts a different light on his retirement, just days before he joined the GMC, as head of the Texas Annual Conference where about half of its churches — more than any other conference in the United Methodist Church — likewise left the denomination.

“The Jones family is truly one of the first families of Methodism in our church,” said Will Willimon, a retired United Methodist bishop and a professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.

Willimon added, “This family has been a family of leaders of our church, and it’s such a shock to have one of the members of the family leading churches out of our church.”

Jones’ late father, S. Jameson Jones, Jr., was president of the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and then dean of Duke Divinity School — two United Methodist schools.

His brother, L. Gregory Jones, now the president of Belmont University, previously served as dean of Duke Divinity School, arguably Methodism’s premier seminary.

And one of his three children, Arthur Jones, is senior pastor of a United Methodist Church: St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas, which is currently negotiating to leave the UMC.

Both Arthur Jones and Greg Jones declined to be interviewed for this article.

“So when you talk about family involvement, there is a lot of that,” Bishop Jones said, who after seminary got his Ph.D. in religious studies from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

He wrote his dissertation on the history of biblical interpretation and John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, because, he said, “I recognized that how Christians interpret the Bible is the most controversial question in Christianity today.”

That question is at the heart of a controversy that has haunted the United Methodist Church for decades and has led to the current split: whether to ordain and marry LGBTQ Christians.

RELATED: After years of loud debate, conservatives quietly split from United Methodist Church

In 2020, delegates to the global UMC’s General Conference were expected to consider a proposal to split the denomination, but the meeting was subsequently delayed three times due to the pandemic. After the third pushback to 2024, the Global Methodist Church, which is against ordaining LGBTQ clergy and marrying same-sex couples, split from the United Methodist Church earlier this year.

Jones — who pastored several congregations in Texas and taught at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University before he was elected bishop in 2004 — had previously positioned himself in what he calls the “extreme center,” a phrase he said he first encountered in “The Economist.”

He wanted to convey how Methodist doctrine holds in tension things other Christians may see as contradictory, such as evangelism and social action.

After reaching out to the magazine to make sure it wasn’t trademarked, Jones said, he wrote it into the title of his 2002 book “United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center,” his social media presence and his website.

Methodist doctrine is “conservative in some ways and liberal in other ways; it occupies the extreme center and is totally opposed to the dead center,” he explained in his 2008 book, “Staying at the Table: The Gift of Unity for United Methodists,” in which he argued the debate over homosexuality was “a symptom of deeper disagreements,” including Christology, ecclesiology and authority of Scripture.

Alongside essays from a diverse group of United Methodist leaders, he wrote that he believed the denomination should not split.

“Now, years later, I realized that my hope and my dream turned out not to be possible because the church has in fact, split this last year,” Jones told Religion News Service. “But it was a desire to try to do whatever I could to hold it together and point the way forward. It just didn’t work.”

It didn’t work, he said, because some church leaders and regional conferences have taken action to oppose the denomination’s official stance barring LGBTQ members from ordination and marriage.

“These doctrinal and moral disobedience questions have made it hard to keep the idea that we really are a church following the same Book of Discipline,” he said.

In June, after more than 18 years as a bishop, he announced he was retiring from the United Methodist Church. But, Jones said, he thought he might have a few more years of “good service to Christ” and wanted to go where he was most needed.

In the meantime, he said, he continued helping churches in the Texas Annual Conference discern whether to remain United Methodist or join the Global Methodist Church, recording videos, writing articles and leading decision-making processes. Either was a great option, he said.

“I think God has a great future for the United Methodist Church. God also has a great future for the Global Methodist Church, and people needed to decide which place could they best serve Christ,” he said.

On vacation for the last few weeks of December, he said it was time for his own discernment.

On the last day of 2022, nine days after his retirement, he joined The Global Methodist Church as an elder and bishop in the fledgling denomination.

The move touched a nerve with Methodists.

The Rev. Keith Boyette, who heads the Global Methodist Church as its transitional connectional officer, said in a statement at the time that the GMC was “rejoicing over God’s good grace to us,” calling Jones a “tremendous blessing” to the new denomination.

Boyette told RNS he commends Jones for creating a “fair playing field” for churches and clergy to discern whether to stay in or leave the United Methodist Church, though he understands others might be critical.

The Rev. David Donnan — pastor of Glennville Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation in Glennville, Georgia — penned a blog post titled, “Why Scott Jones is a Bigger Deal than You Think.”

“By moving he is demonstrating how his views align better in the Global Methodist Church. This (is) more than any person moving. This is the extreme center poster child himself moving out,” Donnan wrote.

Others were skeptical of the timing.

In his own post, which came in the form of a satirical video on his Picklin’ Parson YouTube page titled “Dear Bishop: What Took You So Long?,” the Rev. Stan Copeland of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas said he wasn’t surprised.

Copeland had already raised the alarm about Jones and two other bishops he said had provided “promotion and support” to the Global Methodist Church, all the while being paid by the UMC.

The Texas Annual Conference, once one of the strongest conferences in the UMC, has lost 302 of its nearly 600 churches since 2019, according to United Methodist Church data. That doesn’t happen if a bishop is presenting neutral information, Copeland said.

Jones then retired — with benefits, Copeland stressed — before joining the new denomination himself.

“I think when he wrote those books, he really believed in an extreme center, but he’s extreme right of center now,” he said.

Boyette said Jones had been part of the 2020 gathering that produced a statement outlining a vision for what became the Global Methodist Church, but they had not discussed any potential role for the bishop within the denomination until after Jones retired.

The bishop was “very insistent on observing those appropriate boundaries,” said Boyette.

Jones maintains he provided a process that allowed clergy and local churches to make “a genuine discernment.”

“And I provided high quality, accurate information that helped people see what was going on,” he said. “For example, I said the United Methodist Church is going to be moving in a progressive direction over the next several years. The only question is how far will it go and how fast? I was criticized for telling people that, but I believe it’s the truth.”

The Global Methodist Church’s nine provisional annual conferences and districts are now holding convening gatherings. By the time its three Texas conferences — Mid-Texas, Great Plains and Eastern Texas — finished meeting earlier this month, Jones said they had ordained about 120 new clergy and received a number of United Methodist clergy, who can transfer their credentials to the new denomination.

It’s difficult to build something from scratch, the bishop said, but he believes the Global Methodist Church has a lot of potential.

“It’s exciting to be in a community of people who are focused on worshipping passionately, loving extravagantly and witnessing boldly. I love that mission statement and look forward to being a part of it,” he said.

At the same time, he wishes the best for the denomination that was his home for so long.

“They can reach people that the Global Methodist Church will never reach, and that’s a good thing.”

Shannon Sharpe is known for his popular talk show with Skip Bayless called Skip and Shannon: Undisputed. But long before that, he enjoyed a 14-year Hall of Fame NFL career as a member of the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens.

Sharpe, who has recorded 815 catches, 10,060 receiving yards and 62 touchdowns, is considered one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.

Following a collegiate career at Savannah State, he was selected by the Broncos in the seventh round (192nd overall pick) of the 1990 NFL Draft.

@thehbcupulse

6. Before Shannon Sharpe started his acclaimed TV career, he was a standout at Savannah State! After being drafted to the Denver Broncos, he racked up 815 career receptions for his career with 10,060 yards and 62 TDs!

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Sharpe had a breakout year during his third season, leading the Broncos with 53 receptions and finishing second on the team with 640 receiving yards.

The Glennville, Georgia native would play seven more seasons in Denver (during his first stint with the club) and teamed with fellow Hall of Famers like John Elway and Terrell Davis to win back-to-back Super Bowls (XXXII and XXXIII)

Shannon Sharpe's two-year stint with the Baltimore Ravens before ending his career back in Denver

In February 2000, Sharpe left Denver and signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an unrestricted free agent. That year, the Ravens had one of the NFL's most dominant defenses of all time, led by guys like Ray Lewis, Peter Boulware and Chris McAlister.

But you couldn't overlook a star on the other side of the ball in Shannon Sharpe. During the 2000 AFC Championship Game against the Oakland Raiders, he came up with an insane 96-yard touchdown catch as the Ravens went on to reach the Super Bowl.

Sharpe played two years with the Ravens, winning a Super Bowl during the 2000 season and earning a trip to the Pro Bowl the following year.

In 2002, he returned to Denver and played the final two seasons of his outstanding career. He finished with three Super Bowl rings (two with the Broncos and one with the Ravens) and made eight Pro Bowls.

The player led Denver in receiving six times and the Ravens on one occasion. He was also named first-team All-Pro and All-AFC four times, and earned a spot on the NFL's 1990s All-Decade Team.

Shannon Sharpe produced over 60 receptions 10 times and eclipsed the 1,000 receiving yard-mark in three different seasons. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

That's not bad for someone who's known more for arguing with Skip Bayless on a daily basis than his football career.

GLENNVILLE, Ga. — During the 2022 annual Georgia State FFA Convention, Walt Dasher of G&R Farms in Glennville, Georgia, was awarded an honorary degree from the Georgia State FFA Association. This award is bestowed upon those deserving for their demonstration of outstanding service to agricultural education and Georgia FFA.

Dasher, a third-generation southeast Georgia farmer, has been a strong advocate for the FFA program and has been actively involved in supporting the next generations of farmers for nearly 10 years through Growing America’s Farmer’s (GAF). GAF is a program Dasher created that matches deserving agricultural students looking to pursue degrees in agricultural production with scholarships.

“It is an incredible honor to receive this degree from the Georgia State FFA Association,” Dasher said. “Their recognition of my efforts and resulting benefits to agriculture education is truly humbling.”

Since its inception in 2016, GAF has raised nearly $250,000 for FFA member scholarships in over a dozen states.

“I’ve seen first-hand the benefit these scholarships have on students who receive them, and I’m excited to see where their innovation leads us as the next generation of farm producers,” he said.

The Georgia State FFA Convention took place April 27–30, 2022, in Macon.

“Walt Dasher is a great supporter of agricultural education and FFA,” said Katrina Jones of Georgia FFA. “He has a passion for production agriculture, and through his efforts, he is providing opportunities for FFA members to pursue careers in production agriculture. We are extremely grateful for his generosity and the positive impact he has in the lives of many FFA members.”

About G&R Farms

As a third-generation family farm, G& R Farms began in Southeast Georgia with a small farm in 1945. Today, the organization has grown to over 5,000 acres encompassing several crops, with a main focus on sweet onions. G& R Farms has been growing, packing, marketing and shipping sweet onions for nearly seven decades. The company is dedicated to providing consistent quality year-round while perfecting the quality and flavor of sweet onions through research and development. For more information, visit www.grfarmsonions. com.

About Georgia State FFA

The Georgia State FFA Association is a school-based state youth leadership development organization with the third-largest state association of more than 77,000 members. They strive to make a positive impact on the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. For more, visit the Georgia FFA Organization online at https:// www.georgiaffa.or